Long-time fisherman Phil Michaud supports the ‘Flat is Back’ campaign. David Hills/David Hills Gallery photo
By Doreen Leggett
At the end of Boston’s Fish Pier, past dozens of fish companies and the site of what was once called the nation’s largest daily fresh-fish auction, eight of the state’s top chefs gathered to celebrate and showcase a single fish: flounder.
“I love putting flatfish on the menu,” said William Kovel, head chef and owner of Catalyst Restaurant in Cambridge.
Kovel stood at the back of MassPort’s Exchange Conference Center, in front of doors that open to Boston Harbor, one sample remaining on a white tablecloth.
As he hustled to get more plated, Kovel said although that day’s dish — American Plaice meuniere with braised leeks, haricot vert and sauce Grenebloise – was in demand, he was looking forward to putting lemon sole, aka winter flounder, on his menu. When he opened his restaurant 15 years ago that was one of his originals.
Flounder, common in years past, is having a resurgence. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and a newly formed Flounder Chef Council want the world to know.
Guests paused in their enjoyment of everything from The Black Whale’s baked stuffed sole to Bistro du Midi’s Kombu-cured fluke crudo, with hearts of palm, jalapeno, avocado and green gazpacho, to hear Laura Foley Ramsden describe the campaign, ‘Flat is Back.’
Ramsden, a fourth-generation fishmonger and member of DMF’s marketing committee, said flounder stocks crashed in the 1990s but have since rebounded and are a well-managed, sustainable fish.
“What hasn’t come back is space on menus,” she said.
Ramsden said fishermen, boat owners and buyers, including Tory Bramante of Atlantic Coast Seafood – in the audience with other industry members – reached out and said the price for flounder was hovering around 40 or 50 cents a pound. Could the state help bolster demand?
“That’s where the idea of a chef’s council was born,” she said.
For much of the summer and into fall 10 chefs, including Andrew Chadwick of Chatham Bars Inn, served signature flounder dishes promoted on social media and in other ways.
Domenic Santoro, of F/V Victory, was fishing for summer flounder (commonly known as fluke) when the chef’s event was held September 14. He had seen the push by CBI, featuring flounder with seafood mousseline and kelp butter, and appreciated it.
Santoro, who lands in Harwich, said menus need to reflect the present, flounder, not the past, cod.
“We need to get people more used to eating what we are catching instead of what we used to catch,” he said. “We need promotion of all species of flounder.”
That sentiment was echoed by Bill Amaru, who rod and reels commercially for summer flounder on his boat Paladin out of Stage Harbor in Chatham.
He said people should know where fish is being landed and who is landing them. And they should be asking for them in their local fish markets.
“I don’t think flounder has ever been a second-class fish. There is so much you can do with a thin flounder,” he said.
Visitors were greeted by a half dozen flounders laid out on ice atop silver platters. All had identifying names beside them (as John Pappalardo in his “Over the Bar” column this issue details).
The dishes also ran the gamut from croquettes to a borsch-themed beet-cured Nantucket summer flounder.
Phil Michaud of F/V Charger, fluking out of Sandwich, thinks the state’s initiative is “wonderful.”
“It’s a great idea. We’ve got flounder to catch,” he said.
Michaud has seen the price for flounder increase, but there is still a way to go, particularly to offset the cost of doing business.
When he started fishing close to 50 years ago there was a robust mobile gear fleet that targeted flounder. Now the cost of getting into the fishery is too high compared to the money to be made.
“It’s a massive investment and a huge learning curve,” he said of gear which relies on nets 150 feet long and 60 feet wide.
Michaud said the fleet doesn’t come close to catching the quota available. Numbers from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, back that up.
Only 16.7 percent of plaice quota (one type of flounder) was harvested, winter flounder came in at 31 percent and the highest was witch flounder at 64 percent.
Jeremy Sewall of Row 34, a well-known chef in and around Boston, features local fish. He said making flounder more popular, pushing the price up, benefits fishermen’s bottom lines and helps spotlight the wealth of local species available.
“We have more commercially harvested species than anywhere else in the country. Full stop,” Sewall said.
Diversity works for restaurants as well; his black back flounder, with lentil and rice pilaf, blue crab and tomato caper butter, has been flying off the menu.
If you are looking to purchase flounder, try Chatham Pier Fish Market, Red’s Best and Chatham Harvesters. Need help in the kitchen? Watch this video.